New Delhi: The political climate in Delhi is tense ahead of Thursday’s mayoral election due to war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the appointment of the presiding officer. AAP has raised concerns about the integrity of the polls after the lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Wednesday appointed BJP councillor Satya Sharma as the presiding officer who will oversee the election process, that was earlier supposed to be held in April this year.
Sharma had also served as the presiding officer in February of last year when Shelly Oberoi of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was elected as mayor for the first time after a chaotic process. Oberoi was later re-elected in April of that same year.
Hope election process is smooth: AAP
AAP asked Lieutenant Governor to appoint either the incumbent mayor or the senior-most councillor as the presiding officer to ensure a fair election. However, it hoped that the election process is smooth on Thursday. An order issued by municipal secretary Siva Prasad said that the election will be held at 2pm on Thursday. “In exercise of the powers conferred upon him under section 77(a) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 the administrator ie. LG is pleased to nominate Satya Sharma…to preside over the meeting to be held for the election of mayor on Thursday at 2pm,” the order read.
Praveen Shankar Kapoor, Delhi BJP spokesperson, said that the LG’s decision was apt, while accusing the AAP of being in the habit of questioning statutory appointments. Kapoor added that AAP’s leadership wants to avoid the election of a mayor from the scheduled caste and may attempt to delay the election once again, as they have done in the past.
What does the DMC Act say?
The House will assemble on Thursday afternoon to elect a Scheduled Caste candidate as its mayor, as mandated by rules. As per the provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act, the mayor’s post in the third election cycle of a house has been reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate.
Who are in the contest?
In the electoral fray are AAP’s 45-year-old Mahesh Kumar Khichi, who is the councillor from Dev Nagar ward in Karol Bagh region, and 47-year-old Kishan Lal of the BJP from Shakurpur ward. For the deputy mayor’s post, the contest will be between AAP’s 35-year-old councillor from Aman Vihar (Kirari) Ravinder Bhardwaj, and the BJP’s 41-year-old Neeta Bisht from Sadatpur ward.
All these candidates had filed their nominations on April 18, but the elections were delayed due to a host of reasons, including the incarceration of then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose nod was needed to take forward the poll exercise.
